Rail yard complete (mostly)

The PE&A is proud to announce that the newly opened Dogwood Yard is now accepting traffic. There are still some things that need attention but overall the bulk of the work is done and I'm able to use the yard for switching and holding cars.

Dogwood Yard filled with rolling stock. Track one is against the garage wall and can hold three cars. Tracks two and three both lead into the shed. Track four is a spur that goes along the outside of the shed.

Picking up where the last post left off, I needed to continue filling in, tamping and leveling the yard. Here I'm using an eight-foot board as a straight edge.

Once I had an even surface to work on, the next step was to layout where I wanted the tracks, making use of the switches that I had on hand. I had originally envisioned having the entry track right next to the garage, but I think this makes more sense. This will also allow me to put some narrow buildings between the incoming track and the wall.

As I worked on placement I would check distance between tracks to make sure everything stayed relatively even.

For the yard I was using six-foot lengths of code 250 brass rail from Sunset Valley Railroad. Threading the rail onto the ties took patience but I got the hang of it eventually.

It had not occurred to me until I had a track running into the shed that the bottom of the door is slightly below the floor of the shed. So I'll need to remove the doors and cut off about a half inch so they can clear the top of the tracks. 

After the track was where I wanted it I added ballast, tamped it in, and hosed everything down to try and lock it in place.

Along part of the retaining wall I left space for planting. I put in a layer of potting soil and then topped that with compost.

My NW2 is switching cars in the yard. I started discovering problems as soon as I backed the first car in. One problem is that I didn't properly join the code 332 track coming off the mainline with the new code 250 track in the yard. That's easily fixable. Another problem is that I noticed the "air hoses" on the Kadee couplers on some of the cars are too low and sometimes get caught when going through a switch. 

The side track along the shed ends with an abrupt drop-off right now, but still has room to hold three cars. I plan on extending the retaining wall and track a couple more feet. Beyond that is a fence, although potentially the track could cut through the fence allowing expansion into new territory, perhaps a loop track. 

Another thing I did this weekend was rip out my siding, which has been completely overgrown and is no longer usable. I thought I was going to reuse these switches in the yard, but decided to use Sunset Valley switches I had on hand instead. I may reuse the switches from the siding inside the train shed, if I think I can squeeze four tracks in it.

After the track was pulled up I cut back and ripped out the creeping plant and regraded the road bed.

The hen-and-chicks alongside the track are looking especially lush this spring. They clearly like their new home.

And one more picture from the garden. The columbine are all in peak bloom right now and this is a particularly pretty one.